Marketplace Lending News Roundup – March 26, 2016

News

During the week I share the latest marketplace lending news on Twitter as it happens. Then every Saturday I take the most interesting news items and blog posts from the past week and share them here.

Lending Club rediscovers its peer-to-peer roots from Financial Times – The investor mix is changing at Lending Club as they focus more on retail investors again.

ASIC issues guidance to peer-to-peer lenders from The Sydney Morning Herald – The Australian regulator has issued guidance on p2p lending which is a good thing says Matt Symons of SocietyOne.

Avant Expands into Auto Lending with New Refinance Product from American Banker – Leading online lender Avant is expanding into auto loans starting in California.

Funding Circle’s CEO addressed ‘the most pertinent question anyone can ask about our industry’ from Business Insider – Interesting comments from Samir Desai on the challenges facing the p2p lending industry.

loanDepot Announces New Partnership With Avant to Expand Credit Options For Borrowers from Crowdfund Insider – New partnership in the online lending space: loanDepot and Avant have teamed up.

LendIt Announces 2016 PitchIt Finalists from Business Wire – The 8 finalists for PitchIt @ LendIt are out. See them at LendIt USA next month in San Francisco.

How to measure quality of underwriting: the Gini coefficient from Lending Times – Interesting piece on the measurement of underwriting quality via the Gini coefficient.

Marketplace lending booms even as P2P lenders face ‘uncharted’ regulatory waters from Business in Vancouver – The marketplace lending industry north of the border is becoming more active.

A P-to-P Idea that Relies on Kinship Between Borrowers and Savers from American Banker – I love the approach taken by StreetShares. I think there is a lot of potential for affinity groups and p2p lending.

P2P Regulation Maturing Across The Globe from Nasdaq – Regulation is in place in some countries but others are grappling with what to do with p2p lending.

Current Return vs Forward-Looking Return from LendingRobot – More on loan returns from LendingRobot. It is important to know where you are now as well as where you are going.

Why Jack Dorsey’s Bet on Online Lending Could Have a Huge Payoff from Inc. – Just in time for LendIt we hear that Square is gearing up their small business lending operation.

Bond Offering Tied to Prosper Marketplace Loans Gets Chilly Reception from The Wall Street Journal – Another sign of the shifting investor sentiment – yield on Prosper’s latest securitization up 5% over last year.

The new Innovative Finance Isa: How risky will it be? from the BBC – Some thoughts on the new ISA about to launch in the UK.

From the Lend Academy Forum

The Lend Academy forum is where investors go to discuss p2p lending. Below are some topics that were being discussed this week.

Tax consequences in FOLIOfn – Investors discuss the tax implications of purchasing notes on the secondary market.

Is LendingClub getting desperate for retail investors? – The forum talks about Lending Club’s increased focus on retail investors.

Better returns: LC or Prosper? – Investors chime in on what platform their returns are higher.

 

  • Peter Renton

    Peter Renton is the chairman and co-founder of Fintech Nexus, the world’s largest digital media company focused on fintech. Peter has been writing about fintech since 2010 and he is the author and creator of the Fintech One-on-One Podcast, the first and longest-running fintech interview series.